Oppo’s Discover X8 Professional Needs to Be an AI Cellphone, however Its Digicam Is the Actual Star

Even earlier than unboxing the Discover X8 Professional — not to mention utilizing it, I knew Oppo wished AI to be this cellphone’s major attraction. It was apparent: The phrases Oppo AI Cellphone have been conspicuously emblazoned on the aspect of the gadget’s field, and the corporate had been enjoying up the options on the gadget forward of its launch.

In any case, the Discover X8 Professional is Oppo’s prime flagship cellphone geared toward Samsung’s Galaxy S24 lineup and Apple’s iPhone 16 line — each of which boast their justifiable share of helpful AI options. The Galaxy S24’s AI options embrace stay translation on cellphone calls and generative picture options like Sketch to Picture. In the meantime, the iPhone 16’s options embrace a revamped Siri in addition to time-saving message summaries. The Chinese language firm’s ambitions are hardly stunning given the continued buzz and gen AI product releases within the smartphone and broader shopper tech house. 

For its half, the Discover X8 Professional delivers on its promise. It is the corporate’s first “AI cellphone” that gives a slew of options referring to productiveness and photograph enhancing, in addition to AI suggestions which might be designed to make the expertise extra intuitive. 

However it’s the pair of 50-megapixel periscope-style telephoto cameras on the gadget that stood out to me throughout my day testing this cellphone. These cameras have been among the many most spectacular zoom cameras I’ve ever examined due to their crisp photographs of faraway objects, together with the sheer versatility and inventive freedom they enabled. 

Past the cameras, the Oppo Discover X8 Professional has a bevvy of flagship-level options going for it. It options an impossibly vivid and crystalline show, runs on a big silicon-carbon battery backed up by ultra-fast wired and wi-fi charging, and boasts spectacular sturdiness credentials of IP68 and IP69. The latter means the gadget can face up to jet sprays of water, even at scorching temperatures of 80 levels Celsius (176 levels Fahrenheit).

Nevertheless, it isn’t excellent. The Discover X8 Professional receives a barely shorter length of software program updates than another rival Android telephones. It will get 5 years of Android OS updates and 6 years of safety patches, which is lower than the seven years provided by Samsung’s Galaxy S24 sequence and Google’s Pixel 9 lineup.

Oppo additionally unapologetically mimics Apple’s options. The Discover X8 Professional’s so-called Fast Management buttons copies the iPhone 16’s digital camera management button, which is a {hardware} characteristic designed to supply customers handy entry to the digital camera, a minimum of for now. Oppo has had a historical past of borrowing Apple’s designs, working example: the Oppo Watch from 2020. 

Lastly, the Discover X8 Professional is not receiving a US launch. Nevertheless, it is the primary time since 2022 that Oppo is releasing its flagship Discover X sequence internationally. On the time of writing, Oppo hasn’t shared pricing info. 

The Discover X8 Professional’s duo of telescope cameras

The headline characteristic of the Discover X8 Professional’s digital camera module is the duo of periscope-style telephoto cameras. There are two 50-megapixel telephoto cameras able to 3x and 6x optical zoom. 

Not like digital zoom, which partially achieves a better shot by cropping into a picture, optical zoom is taken into account to be a real zoom as a result of it makes use of the digital camera’s lens to enlarge the picture with out dropping picture high quality. Nevertheless, Oppo does have an AI Telescope Zoom characteristic that enhances the photographs taken utilizing digital zoom. It is mechanically activated at 10x, simply past the vary of the optical zoom, and takes crisp photographs in varied lighting circumstances, together with low-light environments. 

Plus, due to its periscope-style cameras, the Discover X8 Professional provides a flexible vary of focal lengths to select from, which allowed for extra inventive freedom. It was simply enjoyable, and I felt I may belief the digital camera to ship detailed photographs with out attempting too arduous. Telephoto lenses are already a coveted premium characteristic on smartphones, and this periscope-style telephoto is an excellent larger step up in relation to zoom high quality.

AI goodies on Discover X8 Professional

I did not get to make use of the complete extent of the AI options on the Discover X8 Professional since Hong Kong is uniquely deprived within the AI chatbot enviornment — most Western tech giants do not lengthen their providers to this metropolis.

For example, I could not use the Google Gemini app, which is natively put in on the Discover X8 Professional. Moreover, the AI Toolbox did not appear to activate mechanically, as I did not obtain beneficial instruments based mostly on the energetic app.

A lot of the AI options accessible on the Discover X8 Professional are already current on competing telephones. These embrace Circle to Search, a brand new recorder app powered by Gemini 1.5 Professional and a text-generating instrument known as AI Author. Regardless of this, I completely appreciated having generative AI options neatly built-in into apps like Oppo’s Notes app, which helped generate textual content. The AI abstract instrument on the recorder app was supremely helpful to me as a journalist who’s usually utilizing a voice recorder for tales. These options labored nicely sufficient for them be go-to options in my productiveness instrument equipment. 

Nevertheless, I’d like to see extra action-oriented options that an AI agent can ship. For instance, fellow Chinese language rival Honor has applied such options with the Magic V3 in mainland China. It helps customers order espresso or groceries by studying their preferences and habits over time.

Discover X8 Professional’s fast button 

The Discover X8 Professional additionally has a brand new {hardware} button, much like iPhone 16’s Digicam Management button. The Fast Button — as Oppo has dubbed it — is pressure-sensitive and lets you take photographs, zoom out and in of pictures and take a burst of photographs. It would not have as many supported options because the iPhone 16’s digital camera button, corresponding to adjusting the aperture and even taking movies, however I doubt I would even need it to.

In my brief time with the Discover X8 Professional, I did not find yourself naturally utilizing the Fast Button a lot as a result of it is merely not a behavior. I do not anticipate to make use of it a lot within the long-run both and would favor to take photos the common approach. However once I did strive Fast Management, I discovered it intuitive when it comes to determining how one can use it, though I have not developed the behavior of taking photos that approach. Nonetheless I discovered myself questioning whether or not Oppo would possibly replace this characteristic to tackle extra features that I’d use.

Battery and efficiency 

Oppo has hopped on the silicon-carbon battery bandwagon, which fellow Chinese language cellphone maker and rival Honor pioneered in smartphones, taking a web page from the electrical autos trade. I have not spent sufficient time with the gadget to check the battery life, however there are potential benefits to this rising pattern over lithium-ion batteries. 

These embrace a decrease environmental influence and decreased danger of overheating. The long-term reliability of silicon carbon batteries continues to be being researched, and adoption within the smartphone trade continues to be in its early levels. However the truth that extra smartphone makers are switching over from lithium-iron is an encouraging signal.

The Discover X8 Professional run on Mediatek’s Dimensity 9400 chipset, which helps superior AI capabilities on premium Android telephones together with guarantees of efficiency enhancements.

Preliminary ideas on Discover X8 Professional

The Oppo Discover X8 Professional is a promising cellphone with all the trimmings of a high-end 2024 cellphone, from its sturdy and modern design to its spectacular digital camera system and that silicon-carbon battery. Whereas these periscope fashion cameras will stay a spotlight from my early impressions of this cellphone, I am nonetheless interested by the potential of Oppo’s AI options. Regardless that my restricted entry to those options means I have not absolutely explored them, I did love having the writing characteristic on the Notes app and the AI abstract instrument on the recorder app. Nevertheless, if Oppo actually needs to take issues to the subsequent degree, an AI agent would assist flip this gadget into a real assistant.

Watch this: Oppo Discover X5 Professional: 5 Issues I Like About This Flagship Android Cellphone

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